What are your "must-do" house selling tips?

[maamalady]

With DC1 due in June, we are probably going to want to move out of our two-up two-down by summer 2015. Any ideas on how to make our house as appealing as possible? Seeing as we have a bit of time to spread the cost and the work, any ideas would be welcomed :)

Decorate
Clean like you've never cleaned before - inside and out
Declutter (but not to point that house is completely devoid of character)

Have a spare 'nice' duvet cover and duvet for each bed- whip in and off as required!!!

We didn't decorate or replace the worn carpets but we did clean to within an inch of our lives, declutter and presented it nicely (new curtains, bright cushions, cheerful flowers everywhere). We also sorted out the garden & made it look presentable.

Make sure bbathroom is sparkling. We got someone UN to replace any grotty grout and it made a huge difference. Clean everything. Declutter.

Declutter, paint walls in neutral colours, get all those little jobs done and when you have viewings make sure that the bath/shower is completely dry and shiny. It is unpleasant viewing a house which has a steamy bathroom and/or water dripping down shower doors (not to mention pubic hairs in the shower tray...yuk!).

Start watching your local agents. See whose pictures you like. See who writes stuff to your taste. Get them round for advice long before you need them.

Know your estate agents, know the area, know what you are talking about. We did nothing else - I decluttered a bit, tidied a bit but the house sold itself as it was what the buyer wanted and was marketed at the right price at the right time.

Declutter, parents garages/spare rooms are excellent for this purpose and yes clean, clean, clean and don't forget the garden/yard front and back. Fresh coat of paint on fences/gates also worth it for a good first impression.

Towels & bedding reserved for viewings only

Yellow flowers (apparently yellow makes you want to buy or some such)

Bleach grout/use whitening pen

Okay, I shall attempt not to accumulate too much clutter/furniture when baby arrives (an impossible task?!), and will set to on the garden asap.

The bathroom and kitchen definitely need a good sprucing up. Do you think a coat of white paint on kitchen cupboards (currently a rather hideous shade of aging orangey pine) would be a good idea?

So things I can do now:
Declutter and keep it that way as much as possible
Redecorate
Clean everything to within an inch of its life, especially the bathroom
Weed the gardens and stick perennials in all the gaps in flowerbeds
Spy on estate agents (you mean window shopping on rightmove is now bona fide useful research?! )

Things I can do for nearer the time:
Dress up the house with ironed bedlinen, clean towels, and (yellow) flowers
Keep the kitchen and bathroom steam-free and shiny clean

Do all of the above, it's all good advice.
I clear out the everyday toiletries from the bathroom and make sure no cleaning stuff is on show in the bathroom or kitchen either, just when people view or when the photos are being taken, even the washing up liquid goes away.

For photos and viewing put out clean folded towels and posh toiletries.
Remember you're trying to give an impression, your message is to make viewers think 'I wan to live like this' they don't want boring mundane and everyday.

And when you think the house is ready for the pictures or the viewing hoards do an honest appraisal. Walk up to your house as if you're a complete stranger and be ruthless about your appraisal. Do that all the way through.
Things that don't bother us because we live there and live with them, should be sorted and fixed. Pretend you are your own viewers, it's a great tip.

Know who your target audience is. I thought our house would suit first time buyers. Instead the audience was down sizers and divorcees. They want something different and if dressing a house makes any difference, you can dress it accordingly. But noone wants to view a house where you can't open the doors into rooms because of clutter.

Some good advice here. I would say though, we lived in a two up two down until DCs were 3 & 5 so don't move until you want to / need to!

All the advice is good. As you are thinking about this over a year out think about what your buyers survey will say and fix it. A house the is well maintained will sell quicker (and less likely to fall through). I'm thinking cleaning gutters, mending loose tiles, replace anything cracked?
Also you have time to get the garden getting neat more cheaply (eg grass seed rather than turf). Hopefully you will also get the benefit out living in a lovely house. Enjoy your time with your baby.

Thanks all :)

We had a good de-clutter and even now when we have viewers a few things get stuffed in wardrobes, drawers. I asked the agents if there was anything we should do to present house better. All said don't change anything as you can't guess what someone else would want colour scheme wise and to have it looking clean and tidy. One agent said people don't like to see dirty bathrooms and it's worth dealing with any dirty grout/shower heads. Even though it's winter we gave our grass a late cut (knowing house would go on market in the winter), cut back shrubs and have dug over the front border.

I removed the bins from the whole house before all two of my viewings.
No one wants to see a bin. I also removed everything from the surfaces in the kitchen to make it look bigger. I was driving around with a boot full of a microwave, a bread bin and 3 waste paper baskets for ages but I din't care because the house sold in a weekend.

(Although watch out, if your house sells too fast you will torture yourself for months-years that you priced it too low- careful what you wish for)

We used an online estate agent and it really worked for us (emoov).

All the best!